From the world's emptiest airport which was
eventually used as a warehouse to store rice, to an abandoned stadium in the heart of the
Amazon rainforest, and from a massive hotel in one of the least visited countries in the
world to a revolutionary science project that ended up wasting billions of dollars. In today's video, we bring you some of the
most useless mega projects in the world. Number 5: Brazil’s Controversial Stadium
in the Rainforest Brazil famously hosted the 2014 Football World
Cup and for a country so obsessed with the sport, it was a pretty big deal. However, the country needed a lot of renovations
to be ready for the showpiece event. In total, Brazil had to build 12 new football
stadiums and renovate some old ones. This massive megaproject was going to cost
Brazil a total of 11 billion dollars and despite the immense cost, the country was looking
forward to showing its passion for the sport to the whole world. But as in many countries that host a World
Cup, these huge megaprojects are not necessarily economically viable in the long run. Critics and economic consequences are often
overlooked to deliver the best show possible for the world cup. In many ways, the whole project didn't make
any economic sense. But the most obvious was the construction
of the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus, which took four years to build and cost around 250
million dollars. The construction itself was no easy task. Manaus is Brazil's 7th largest city but it
is located in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. This remote location poses difficult challenges
in moving large amounts of goods. Many of the materials used for the stadium's
construction were shipped from Portugal and navigated through the Amazon river. This entire journey took 3 weeks which made
the construction process more costly. But the problems with this megaproject ran
much deeper. After all the effort and money that went into
building this stadium, it only hosted 4 matches at the World Cup. The revenue generated from these few games
was obviously nowhere near the spending. After the 4 World Cup games, the stadium was
rarely used. The local clubs simply don't have enough of
a fanbase to fill out the 40,000-seat arena every week. Besides that, many residents can’t afford
the tickets to attend a game. So for the local clubs, the maintenance cost
and the rent for the stadium outweigh the total revenue. The stadium was in use yet again for a few
competitions like the 2016 Olympic games. But as with the 2014 World Cup, it was only
needed for a few days. It hasn't been used for many events ever since
and is only a reminder of how the money to build it could have changed the lives of many
Manaus residents. Number 4: China’s Abandoned Ghost Cities China's rise as a major economic power in
the early 2000s was accompanied by a real estate boom. Megaprojects sprung up all over the country
and its major cities became home to some of the world's most famous skyscrapers. However, not all these projects were a success. In fact, China has accumulated plenty of ghost
cities that cost billions to build but have largely remained empty. For today's video, we turn to China's Hebei
Province which is home to one such project. The Xiangyun International Project is an 1800-acre
development in Shijiazhuang that was dubbed as a "City within a City". Developed at a cost of 3 billion dollars,
the project consisted of two parts. A bigger high-end residential community with
apartments and theme parks, and a smaller commercial hub containing shopping complexes
and skyscrapers. The location of the project is very convenient
as it is built right next to a high-speed train stop and in close proximity to underground
metro stations. This location isn't at all isolated like some
of the other projects we have featured in this series. So how did this enormous project end up abandoned
with almost no population? When the project was first announced, there
was a lot of positive excitement. 700 housing units were quickly sold but in
2014, the construction was stopped abruptly as the real estate company behind the project
was put under investigation by the local authorities. By 2017, the charges of corruption were proved
and the main developer landed in jail. Consequently, the property prices saw a sharp
decline and the company declared bankruptcy. As of now, thousands of homeowners have not
been able to move in because the project has been confiscated by the government. The half-finished development remains unused
to this day and the already developed areas have started deteriorating. Strangely, traffic can be heard roaring across
the streets just outside the district but inside it paints a picture of a ghost town
that is only inhabited by stray animals. These days the Xiangyun International Project
is more of a tourist attraction than a residential development. It is often visited by bloggers and YouTubers
who are fascinated by such a huge abandoned site and want to tell its story. There's no official indication that the project
will resume anytime soon and it looks like this $3 billion mega-project will only be
visited by adventurers. Number 3: The Worlds Emptiest Airport In 2009, the island nation of Sri Lanka just
ended its deadly civil war. The victorious president Mahinda Rajapaksa
immediately made up plans to give the country an economic push. At the time, the country's biggest city Colombo
was the only city with an International Airport. However, that was all about to change as the
President envisioned a second commercial hub in the Hambantota region, located 250 kilometers
away from the former Capital. This region was already experiencing a massive
construction boom and a new seaport was built there with the help of China - a partner willing
to invest billions into infrastructure projects. The next big plan was to build Sri Lanka's
second international airport in the small town of Mattala, located just outside of Hambantota
city. At the time, a government agency submitted
a report advising against the construction of a second international airport in Mattala. The report concluded that the money would
be better spent on extending the International Airport in Colombo instead. However, the government ignored the warning
and still went through with the plan. Construction began in November 2009 and the
airport was completed in just over 3 years. It was named after the president himself and
was officially opened for flight operations in March 2013. The total cost of the project was 210 million
dollars, 190 of which were loaned by China. The Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport
is a modern airport by any standard. It can handle up to one million passengers
every year and has a 35-meter-tall air traffic control tower. Its proximity to Sri Lanka's most famous tourist
attractions makes it an ideal location for many travelers. So there was some optimism when the airport
was opened. But things didn't pan out as the government
had hoped. While it looked like a reasonable project
at first, the red flags were always there. Most important of which is its geographic
location. The airport is located in a small city with
a population of just 20,000 people, a third of which live below the poverty line. So, the local demand for the airport is non-existent. Even though it is close to many tourist hotspots,
a lack of effective transportation makes it less desirable for travelers. In 2014, the airport was used by 3,000 flights
and serviced 50,000 passengers. For an airport designed to serve a million
passengers, the numbers were too low. But the worst was yet to come. Due to low demand, the airliners were quick
to cancel operations and within a year it was registering losses of 18 million dollars
a year. Even Sri Lanka's state airline stopped operating
flights at the start of 2015 after Rajapaksa's defeat in the elections. With no demand and rarely any traffic, the
wild animals in the vicinity started to outnumber the people using the airport. On one occasion the government had to employ
300 soldiers to chase the wild animals away from the premises. Its huge area was also used as a rice storage
warehouse to reduce losses. Mattala Rajapaksa was making all the wrong
headlines, and in 2016, Forbes termed it as the world's emptiest airport. In 2018, the airport was completely abandoned
when Flydubai, the only airline still using it stopped its operations. Critics claim that the project was not economically
viable from the start and that it was developed simply because Hambantota was the home region
of the former president. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been
accused of pushing the country further into China's debt trap, especially after his seaport
project also failed. The airport became briefly operational during
the COVID-19 pandemic as the demand for return flights grew. Its long-term future however remains uncertain
with no clear plan in place. Number 2: America’s Largest Failed Science
Project We start today's list with one of the largest
physics megaprojects in history. When completed, the Superconducting Super
Collider in Texas would consist of a circular tunnel system around Waxahachie that would
serve as the world's most energetic particle accelerator. Particle accelerators use electric fields
to accelerate charged particles to very high speeds. They are used for research purposes and help
scientists unearth the mysteries of our universe. Particle accelerators have been around since
the 1930s and as of today, about 30,000 of these have been built around the world. However, none of them come close to producing
as much energy as the Superconducting Super Collider planned to be built in Texas in the
1980s. Design calculations for the SSC began in 1983
and the project was approved by the Reagan administration in 1987. The project found massive support in Texas
due to its wide range of applications and the hope of scientific supremacy. But while the plans for the project looked
promising, reality painted a different picture. As it turned out, a project of this scale
faced many unsolved challenges which eventually led to a point where the whole project had
to be reconsidered. But what exactly happened? The biggest roadblock as with many failed
megaprojects was the budget overrun the SSC accumulated over the years. According to initial estimates, the whole
project was to be completed at a cost of 4.4 billion dollars. However, the project's magnitude made it impossible
to stay within the allocated budget. The SSC's ring would have a circumference
of over 87 kilometers meaning that a tunnel of that proportion would become one of the
longest tunnels in the world and completely surround the town of Waxahachie. That involved undertaking a massive civil
engineering project to excavate millions and millions of tonnes of soil. Away from the construction site, questions
were being raised about the viability of the project. Many politicians and even members of the scientific
community contended that the money could be better spent elsewhere. NASA was already working on the proposal to
launch the International Space Station and required as much funds as they could get. By 1992 the estimated costs had already ballooned
up to 9 billion dollars and the case against the project was getting stronger. Just a year later, in 1993, the cost estimates
had soared up to 11 billion dollars. By that time, 2 billion dollars had already
been spent on the project to dig up a tunnel extending up to 22 kilometers in circumference. With costs rising and rising, the government
finally decided to officially pull the plug on the Superconducting Super Collider. Since the 22 kilometers of tunnels were not
in use, they were intentionally filled with water as a way to preserve them. While the United States canceled the SSC,
the efforts to build a high-energy particle collider continued in Europe. In 2008, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research successfully built the Large Hadron Collider. It was completed at a cost of just 5 billion
dollars and lies in a 27-kilometer tunnel near Geneva. Meanwhile, parts of the SSC site in Waxahachie
are now occupied by a chemical manufacturing company. The SSC was an epic project that would have
shaped the United States in the field of particle physics. But it turned out to be way too ambitious
at the time and ended up costing billions of dollars without any results. Number 1: The Most Useless Hotel in the World
Next on the list is the tallest unoccupied building in the world also known as North
Korea's "Tower of Doom". North Korea isn't too keen on hosting tourists. The state's policy of secrecy and the state's
regulation of any interaction between the locals and the foreigners means the country
isn't a major tourist attraction. However, this reluctance to host tourists
wasn't always there. Because in the 1980s, North Korea, fueled
by its rivalry with South Korea, planned on hosting thousands of foreign visitors in the
World's Tallest Hotel. South Korea, backed by the United States,
had won the hosting rights to the 1988 Olympics. Moreover, a South Korean state firm just finished
building the tallest hotel in the world in Singapore. Not to be left behind, North Korea won the
hosting rights of the 1989 World Festival of Youth. A year later, the country broke ground on
a unique pyramid-shaped hotel in the capital Pyongyang. At a height of 330-meters, the Ryugyong Hotel
would surpass the hotel built by South Korea to become the tallest hotel of the time. North Korea had planned to inaugurate the
hotel on the eve of the festival. However, the construction couldn't be completed
in time due to engineering problems. Funnily enough, it is actually not finished
till this day. The hotel's height finally topped out in 1992,
however, by that time the financial backer of the project, the Soviet Union, no longer
existed. The financial support dried up and the project
was stalled. At this point, the Ryugyong hotel was just
a hollowed-out concrete structure with no windows or any sort of construction beyond
the outer walls. Construction remained halted for the next
16 years until an Egyptian company took over the project. By 2012, they installed a glass facade and
LEDs to the building's exterior for $180 million. North Korea's new political problems meant
that the renewed efforts didn't last long either and the building was abandoned yet
again. It is estimated that the completion of the
Ryugyong hotel will cost upwards of 2 billion dollars which is about 5 percent of North
Korea's total GDP. There is no official information available
on the project's progress and for a country with a lack of money like North Korea, a resumption
seems very unlikely. What is your opinion about these failed megaprojects? Let us know your thoughts in the comments
below. If you want to see more about similar projects,
you can watch Part 1 of this series or our video about “The Biggest Megaprojects Never
Finished”. Thank you for watching, and we will see you
in the next video!
